


The Weight of Command [Fanart]

by dalish-ish (elavellan)



Series: Pictures at an Inquisition [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Crisis of Faith, Fanart, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Quiet, Shock, Survivor Guilt, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 23:46:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15376047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elavellan/pseuds/dalish-ish
Summary: Meredith's second-in-command steps into her office for the first time after the Rebellion.





	The Weight of Command [Fanart]

They’d had a game, back in Ferelden. He hadn’t thought about it in years. Maybe not since he’d left for templar training.

One of the farm children would volunteer to have a scrap of fabric tied around their eyes, then the rest would scamper off and... Cullen couldn’t quite remember the rules they’d used, if they’d had any, but well he remembered the sensation of lifting the blindfold from his eyes. It felt like what had happened this morning.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

Cullen was tired. He was only twenty-six years old, but it had been a long day—a long decade. Guilt was far from a new sensation for him, but his feelings over what had happened here in Kirkwall went deeper. On some level, he'd known that what happened at Kinloch hadn't been his fault—but this... this was different. The stench of battle still lingered in the hall. It was just as horrible as the last time he'd seen a Circle fall. Even worse was the smoke that still clouded the skies and clogged Cullen's throat, already sore from shouting.

How many days had Cullen spent in that courtyard below, arms folded and face impassive, believing that he was in control? How many times had Hawke and her friends—Hawke's _friends!_ —walked past the confident Knight-Captain, who stood oblivious to the city crumbling around him?

How many times had Cullen stood in this office, unquestioningly taking his orders from the leader behind that desk? How proud had he been to be her right-hand man, how certain that he was bringing order and justice to the world? He'd trusted Meredith implicitly, admired her conviction and the strength of her faith. It had been some time ago that he'd begun to wonder whether she might be... misguided. Yet for all his doubts, he'd done nothing.

Maker, but he was a fool. _  
_

 


End file.
